As I write this, I am waiting for scene 15 to render. That leaves one scene remaining to be animated, the Educational Maggot Sequence—scene 14. Yes, that’s right, the Educational Maggot Sequence…don’t all kids’ shows have one of those? Maggots are an important part of nature, it’s time folks learned that. And if you squint when you look at them, they are kind of cute (note-you may need to squint really hard).

So, where does this put The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell: Of Maggots and Meat episode on its timeline to completion? Well, I’m glad you asked. Very near the end, but not quite there. My goal is to complete scene 14 this week. That will mean every scene (every second, every frame) will have been animated. But?

There are a few stages left in the process:

• Refinement: I will review every shot and decide what needs to be tweaked and improved. Every scene will have many animation and compositing adjustments to make.

• Audio: Music needs to be created, sound effects need to be added/recorded, and it all has to be mixed together.

• Credits: I need to compile a list of everyone who helped in some fashion and build a credits sequence. I want to add illustrations of characters throughout. I still need to draw them.

• Final Conform: Everything (sound, picture, etc.) needs to be put together and output.

So, yes, the brunt of the work is complete. Yet, there is still a lot to do. My hope is to have a final completed video before the New Year. If life steps in and makes that impossible, I beg it not to push that date back any further than late January.

It has been almost three years since that day a group of us turned my living room into a shoddy greenscreen stage. It is time for Marty Mitchell to be finished and unleashed on the public. If the world must end in 2012, let it at least end with a smile as Marty and friends defeat the terror of Mr. Meat!

character sketch for Freddy Foodstuff, narrator of the Digestive Education Segment

Scene 11: Pancreas Island in the Land of Gastros was completed a couple of days ago. I will need to tweak a few things (much like in every other completed scene), but it is 98% done. If it had to go into the final project as is, I wouldn’t cry (much). This is to say the visuals are complete, the audio for the scene won’t be touched for a while.

The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell Pilot Episode “Of Maggots and Meat” will be composed of 16 scenes/segments. As it stands now, 6 of them are complete (1-3,5,7,11). Scene 8 is very close and I started Scene 9 today. Elements have been built for 4, 6, and 12, but they are still in the very early stages (partly because I haven’t cast or recorded dialogue for a few of the Fridge Landers). Scenes 13-16 haven’t been started. I estimate I am roughly 40% done with the visuals. That leaves me 9 months to finish the other 60%.

The smiling cowboy above is Freddy Foodstuff. He is anthropomorphized masticated food and the star of Scene 9. Jon Gormley was kind enough to perform his voice, as well as Dr. Enzyme. He’ll be teaching us about the process of digestion while he giddy-aps through the digestive tract.

The Pilot episode will contain three educational segments. The first is nearly complete. Bartholomew Bacteria steals the show for 38 seconds to teach us about food safety and why we shouldn’t leave food out for long periods of time. SPOILER ALERT: It can make you sick!

Overall show update: I estimate the post production animation/compositing for the pilot episode is roughly 30% complete. I’m pushing hard to make sure this thing is finally finished this year. Keep your fingers and cilia crossed.

Where Am I?

You are currently browsing entries tagged with educational at
Many Maladies.